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| Keegan, Carolyn & Britts with Cruella deVil |
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| Happy Birthday G'ma! |
After our tour
through space, it was time to head to the Plaza Inn where we had booked a
surprise birthday lunch for mum including a Minnie Mouse cake. This was fantastic as we had reserved seats
in an air conditioned restaurant and we were thoroughly looked after by the
‘cast members’. The birthday badges we
were wearing indicated to all ‘cast’ in the park to wish “happy birthday” to
group and ensure that they acknowledged the birthday person. I would recommend this to anyone who is at
any Disney park around their birthday!
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| The Minnie B'day cake |
After lunch, we
headed back into Tomorrowland to grab our Fastpasses for Space Mountain (we
were able to by-pass the queue and ride between 9.40pm and 10.40pm!) and have a
shoot out on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
Teamed with the Brittster again, this is a ride that is equal parts
shooting gallery and dark ride. Once on-board
our space vehicle we grabbed our laser pistol and shared the joystick which
controls the 360-degree spin of the buggy to give your greater aim. As you can see by the pic, I won that round!
We also Fastpassed Autopia and went to catch
the Disneyland Railroad (Justyn does love a train!). The track encircles Disneyland and provides a
grand circle tour around The Magic Kingdom through each of its realms including
a visit to the "Grand Canyon/Primeval World" dioramas. After the train ride, it was back to Autopia
and this time Byron was in the drivers seat.
Literally. This is a self drive
ride, where we steer specially designed cars through an enclosed track on
guided rails but there still serious steering involved! Byron did pretty well chauffeuring me around
the park! On our way to the next ride,
it was definitely ice cream time and Justyn and I just couldn’t go past the
Mickey Mouse shaped ones! We thoroughly
enjoyed our treats while we were in the line for the Finding Nemo Submarine
Voyage, an adventure through the Australian waters with Marlin and Dory as we
searched for Nemo. Although the
viewports windows are below water level, the "submarines" do not
actually submerge when "diving". It was pretty cool as it involved the Pixar
animation amongst the sculptured seascape.
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| Mickey Icecreams |
We had been in
Tomorrowland for most of the day so with Space Mountain the only ride left to
tackle in this Disney realm we headed across to join the queue for the
Matterhorn Bobsleds. It is modelled
after the Matterhorn, a mountain in the Swiss Alps and is the first tubular
steel continuous track roller coaster ever constructed and thus a coaster landmark. Closed for six months in 2012 for a major
refurbishment, the mountain was painted to make it more reminiscent of the real
Matterhorn Mountain. Justyn, Patty, Keegan and I were in a train
together; each in our own section in single file. Most of the ride happens inside the mountain
and once we are at the top, the bobsleds descend unpowered through the
Matterhorn's many caverns and passageways past the growling Yeti before
plunging into a water break. I think
this was Keegan’s favourite ride based on the giggles behind me! Some trivia for you - in the 1980's, The
Matterhorn Ski Club began buying Seeing Eye Dogs with the unclaimed coin change
and items that fell out of pockets during the ride.
After the
Matterhorn, it was decided that it was finally time to tackle the ‘dinosaur in
the room’; the ride that brings either squeals of delight or groans of pain at the
perceived torture ahead, “It’s a Small World”.
A Disney staple, it is almost mandatory that first time visitors endure
this ride! A couple of us were seasoned
professionals, however it was still set up still for the Christmas so it was a
mash-up of the well known song with Christmas caroles…. Happy happy joy joy!
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| All of us on It's A Small World |
Located in the realm of Fantasyland, this musical boat ride features over 300
brightly costumed audio-animatronic dolls in the style of children of the
world, frolicking in a spirit of international unity, and singing the
attraction's title song, which has a theme of global peace. Did you know that this ride goes for 15
minutes!! Now the Disney first-timers
can truly say they’ve been to Disneyland!
(Yes Justyn, I promise you that I will never, ever drag you through It’s
A Small World again…) The Disneyland
parade was starting soon and we managed to grab a good place to watch it from
so while everyone waited or went to get jumpers, I found a pretzel in the shape
of Mickey’s head – well I just had to try it!
We heard Mickey’s Soundsational Parade before we saw the first
float. The parade included Disney
characters from throughout the years over about nine floats, each with many
characters singing the catchiest tune from their movie. Some amazing drummers led the first float
with Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Pluto following behind on their music float
accompanied by Chip 'n' Dale and Goofy – I was certainly singing along with
“M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E”! Other floats
celebrated Aladdin, Princess Ariel from ‘The Little Mermaid’, The Frog
Princess, The Lion King, Peter Pan and Donald Duck’s ‘The Three Caballeros”.
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| Mickey's Soundsational Parade |
One of the larger floats presented some of
the many Disney princesses such as Snow White, Cinderella, Princess Aurora
(Sleeping Beauty) Belle (Beauty & the Beast) and Rapuzel (Tangled). Brittany and Keegan were very cute blowing
kisses to the characters hoping for a wink or return kiss. 16 was the final count that they
received! The final float was my
favourite with Mary Poppins and Bert riding carousel horses up the street
surrounded by the chimney sweeps singing ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”!
Parade over, we
headed over to Adventureland (bypassing Frontierland as the Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad was closed until October 2013 for extensive renovations) to
ride Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Unfortunately this was where we said goodbye
for the day to Patty and Keegan as it was close to 9pm. While they watched the fireworks, we queued
for the Indiana ride which is an enhanced motion vehicle dark ride attraction
based on the Indiana Jones films. The
queuing area is pretty amazing as it is very detailed queue and leads you
through dimly lit temple chambers and eerie passageways containing
booby-trapped sections reminiscent of the Indiana Jones movies. Boarding military vehicles, the ride takes you
on a turbulent high speed adventure, which includes the rolling boulder from
the first Indy movie. It is very fast
and very bumpy and very cool! We had
time to fit in one more ride before heading back to Tomorrowland to ride Space
Mountain. Pirates of the Caribbean was
the universal choice. In New Orleans
Land, the Pirates ride is a dark log flume style indoor boat voyage float
through a larger-than-life pirate adventure featuring gunshots, cannon blasts,
burning buildings, and carousing and pillaging pirates, all accompanied by the
song "Yo Ho Ho A Pirate's Life for Me" (Disney does love a tune that burrows deep
down into your brain encouraging you to sing aloud for the next 3 days…) Did you know that the film is based on the
ride and not the other way around?
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| Taylor, Justyn, Peter & Sally on Space Mountain |
Feet weary and
hungry, we weaved our way back to Tomorrowland for a very late dinner before
riding the much anticipated Space Mountain.
In 2010 when Justyn and I were in Disneyland with Patty, we queued for
close to three hours to ride this rollercoaster as the Fastpasses had been
exhausted. And we did it again although
the queue was a shorter 90 minutes…. So
to walk through and by-pass this lengthy wait was awesome. I was paired with Byron again for this ride
and he was a little nervous to say the least!
Space Mountain is an indoor steel roller coaster that has been thrilling
riders since 1977 (with a number of upgrades along the way including an
on-board soundtrack and a complete track replacement!). The special effects while on the ride change
at night giving a different experience dubbed "Rockin' Space Mountain". Because of the darkness, it is near to
impossible to gauge exactly where the ride is going to go next, it offers no
drops any steeper than 40 degrees, and there is no point in the ride that would
cause anything more than the most pedestrian of thrills for even a mild fan of
coasters. That said, this ride is an
absolute classic and a screaming heap of fun!
So much so that we ran around and did it all again! Nearly 11pm by the time we had ridden Space
Mountain again, it was time for us to head home. Another magical day of a full on 12 hours at
the self proclaimed “Happiest Place on Earth”!
PS Happy Birthday Mum!
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| Byron and I front row on Space Mountain! |
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